In the twenty-fifth and penultimate episode of the second season of Enterprise, this was a weird one. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of misogyny and rape/sexual assault
Lord, what did I just watch?
The Bounty
I feel like the writers were trying to give us this grand story about loyalty, disappointment, and desperation. The pieces are certainly there, but because Archer’s plot was split with that one thing (I’ll get to it, GODS HELP ME), there wasn’t enough time to flesh out everything. I admit that it’s cool that the show thought to give us the ramifications of Archer being broken out of Rura Penthe. Right??? But there’s a serious misstep in casting that update the way they did here: why wouldn’t the Klingons themselves get Archer? Wouldn’t it be a matter of honor? I feel like they’d consider it a cop-out to put a bounty on Archer and then have a non-Klingon fulfill said bounty. It doesn’t really make sense to me!
Instead, we get the story of Skalaar, the Tellerite plunged into debt after trying to take a shortcut through Klingon space. Again, there’s promise here! Skalaar lost a transport ship because of his mistake; he damaged his relationship with his brother; he turned to bounty hunting as a way of earning money to pay the impound fees he owed. THIS IS ALL GREAT STUFF OKAY. And Skalaar starts off as a disaffected, uncaring antagonist who slowly realizes that he’s bit off more than he can chew. Other bounty hunters are after Archer; the Klingons are untrustworthy. And Skalaar built this entire fantasy out of the promise that Archer’s bounty would net him a small fortune!
If the writers were going to focus on this, then I wish they had explored this whole world rather than constructed this paint-by-numbers universe. Is there a network of bounty hunters? Where do they hear about jobs? Do they band together to support one another when one is stiffed on a payment for a job? Or are they as competitive and cutthroat as Gaavrin is? I have no idea! There’s virtually no worldbuilding done for a culture that’s brand new to this show. Even in the scene with Skalaar’s brother, I was left wanting more. How long had he been cleaning plasma injectors? Why did he turn to that job after their ship was impounded? Why stay there for years?
I more or less felt as if Skalaar’s turn around was forced. After he learns that his ship can’t truly be reclaimed (because the Klingons gutted it for parts), we don’t even get to spend time examining Skalaar’s crushing disappointment. He just turns into a “good” guy with very little nudging from Archer. It’s just not that satisfying, you know? I was glad that he got to double cross the Klingons, but what becomes of this character? Why did he matter? I didn’t get the sense that the writers even knew what to do with him.
Pon Farr
Yeah… no. I was mostly okay with its usage on Voyager, but lord, I just hated this??? Look, this show and the Trek universe as a whole has a thing about objectifying women, and I can’t deny that this specific episode felt egregious in its attempts to sexualize T’Pol. She’s one of my favorite characters, too, and yet I keep feeling like this is similar to some of the weirder shit they did with Seven of Nine on Voyager. It’s like the production team just HAS to keep reminding us that T’Pol is super hot and that everyone finds her beautiful… just like Seven. Sigh.
The depiction of T’Pol’s “artificial†pon farr, however, was a horrible, horrible mess. Whereas Voyager’s writers at least attempted to address consent in direct ways, this episode’s writers make T’Pol seem like an outright predator. Look, I know I’m biased here, but I just cannot view people doing things to other people WHILE THEY ARE ASLEEP OR UNCONSCIOUS as anything other than revolting. It’s especially gross that the writers make her do what she does to Phlox because they then establish that Denobulan males are hesitant to undress around others or talk about sex, so LET’S DO BOTH OF THOSE THINGS AT ONCE. This episode embarrasses two characters for humor. Look at the way Tucker and Malcolm react when Archer asks where T’Pol is. Or look at how the scene is played when Tucker comes to bring food to T’Pol and Phlox. Sure, there’s some tension here, but this seems like a really serious thing to draw humor from, you know?
The video for “Bounty†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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